Pages

Tuesday, March 29, 2011

LSC Roundup 3-29

Williams Earns Top Division II Honor - UCO Basketball
PINEHURST, N.C. (March 28) – Central Oklahoma's Dauntae Williams capped off a sensational senior season Monday with his selection as NCAA Division II Player of the Year by Basketball Times.

The versatile 6-foot-4 guard from Missouri City, Texas averaged 20.9 points, 6.5 rebounds, 3.8 assists and 2.3 steals in leading the Bronchos to one of their best-ever seasons in 2010-11.

UCO won a school-record 30 games, finishing 30-4 while winning the Lone Star Conference North Division and LSC Tournament titles en route to making it to the Division II Sweet 16 before falling in the finals of the South Central Regional.

“This is a great honor for Dauntae and one he's very deserving of,” UCO coach Terry Evans said. “He can do about anything on the court and we asked him to carry a big load for us this season.”

Williams was LSC North Division Player of the Year for the second consecutive year, took MVP honors in the LSC Tournament and was an all-tournament pick in the South Central Regional.

A six-time LSC North Division Offensive Player of the Week winner during the season, Williams finished fifth on UCO's single-season points list with 689. He ranks 18th on the school's career scoring list with 1,276 points, which is fourth-best among two-year players.

Williams becomes the third UCO player to earn Division II Player of the Year honors, joining Alex Wright (1993) and Joe Newton (1998).

Williams was joined on the first-team All-America list by Gage Daye of Bloomfield, Justin Keenan of Ferris State, Anthony Moody of Mary and Darryl Webb of Indiana (Pa.). Midwestern State's Chris Hagen was the only other LSC player on one of the three All-America teams as a third-team selection.

Hagan led the Mustangs to a second consecutive trip to the NCAA Division II Elite Eight after leading the South Central Region while ranking 17th in NCAA Division II at 21.4 points per game.

The senior from Houston earned LSC South Division Player of the Year honors became the eighth two-year player in MSU history to amass 1,000 points and stands fourth in the all-time two-year scorers list with 1,188 points standing behind a pair of NAIA All Americans in Tony Forch (1,391 points) and Henry Crawford (1,320).

Coming off a first-ever Lone Star Conference North Division title in its final season as a member of the LSC, ECU will be a charter member of the new Great American Conference beginning this fall. In preparation for his team’s newest challenge, McCarty spent the winter huddling with his assistant coaches to ensure that his squad accomplishes everything possible during the third spring camp of his second tour as ECU’s head coach.

“We’ve got to get better at our overall excecution as a team,” said McCarty, who expects to welcome “about 75” players when spring practice opens Monday afternoon. “We have several areas of concern where we have to improve, and the glaring one is just overall team execution.

“During the offseason we looked at how BAD a job we did in certain areas,” he explained. Nothing was swept under the rug. Everything was examined.”

After experiencing the usual growing pains of a start-up program in their first two seasons, the Cardinals have outgrown their peach fuzz and look nothing like the predominantly freshman team they were in 2009.

Football isn’t so new anymore at UIW, which started spring training last week.

“It’s kind of like watching your kids grow up,” Santiago said. “People that don’t see them for a long time walk in and say they look different. That’s what other people tell me about our players. They say, ‘Boy, they look different.’ To me, they look the same because I see them every day.

“But I’m trusting the fact that we’re stronger and bigger. We’re growing up. Hey, we have a junior class now.”

Rams Put Full Pads on in Fourth Spring Practice - ASU Football
SAN ANGELO - For the first time this spring Angelo State football players wore their full pads through practice as the team conducted its fourth session at the LeGrand Sports Complex Monday afternoon.

AngeloSports.com caught up with the safeties afterwards to get their take on practice.